What is Close Registration?

Registration in printing refers to the alignment of different colors or processes on a single card or image.

In specialty printing, each color is applied to the paper individually. For all the processes to line up correctly on the final piece, each process has to be done "in registration" to the other processes on the same card.

"Close Register" is the term that communicated more waste and time will need to be added to a print run in order to execute a more difficult, precise design.

Understand Close Register

The left items below are in perfect register, while the right items are one millimeter out of register with each other. By most industry standards the top items would require a close registration classification for production, while the negative space in the bottom designs typically does not require it.